Ireland’s annual ukulele festival demonstrates the instrument’s phenomenal appeal

Cartoonist Dan Perkins: It’s hard coming up with something crazier than what's actually going on

Pearl Jam and Yes are also given the prestigious honour at a ceremony in New York

US justice department and state file legal actions in civil rights standoff

Supporters and opponents of new transgender law hold competing rallies

State is first to make transgender people use public restrooms that match gender at birth

Beyonce, Bono, Malala Yousafzai, Michelle Obama attend equality awareness initiative

Eddie Vedder, Rihanna and more enter the war zone

No need to wait until your favourite acts do the festival circuit in Ireland. Get our continental drift? Lauren Murphy’s top 10 European festivals

Police find undeveloped film ahead of 20 year anniversary

From rock legends Pearl Jam and Queens of the Stone Age to young guns Haim and Kodaline, the music calander is brimful of exciting happenings over the next few months. Here are 20 of the best upcoming shows and releases

Ben Shepherd from Seattle survivors Soundgarden on his formative years, on getting the band back together and how he almost joined Nirvana after partying with Kurt Cobain

Mark Yarm’s oral history of Seattle’s grunge scene has room for winners and losers

Opus II to close after over 100 years

They have a combined age of well over 1,000, combined record sales of more than one billion, and they’re all coming here on tour in the next few months